Book Blitz: To Know Me by Marcy Blesy

To Know Me
by Marcy Blesy
Published: August 21, 2013
Available: Amazon

Synopsis:
To know me is to die...

Seventeen-year-old Mae is convinced that the consequences of her poor decisions have caused the untimely deaths of her dad, sister Laura, and grandma who all die within a year, no matter how ludicrous her thoughts seem to those she loves. The solution? Run away so no one else she cares for gets hurt (even if she has to keep a GPS tracker on her phone at all times).

Desperate to earn her diploma and salvage something of her life, she transfers schools when people get too close. After switching to Woodson Prep with only two months to go until graduation, Mae keeps her goals in sight. But when she meets Ty, the "perfect boy" with his own secrets and a relentless interest in Mae, she must decide if she can stop running from the past and still protect those she loves.

Excerpt:
To know me is to die. I mean, to really know me, like when you know I can run for hours without so much as a water break, or that cinnamon sugar doughnuts are my weakness, or that my dad gave me a whole different name. But I don’t let people get that close. I’ve learned the hard way. Too many people die in my life. Grandma said I was only unlucky.

“It’s not your fault all those people you love die. It’s just bad luck that you’ve had to deal with grief so young. Not fair at all,” she’d said. That was right before she died on my seventeenth birthday and right after my sister Laura, my dad, and my dog Petie.

I direct Mom Number 4 toward the front door of the high school. I always get a new mom when I transfer schools. I have yet to find a school that allows a seventeen-year-old to register herself. I wanted to graduate in Ohio, but too many people started asking questions. They weren’t important questions. Just stuff like, “How come I can’t ever come over to your house?” or “Why won’t you ever talk about yourself?” or when I do, “That’s not what you told so-and-so.” I had to leave. To let people into my life isn’t an option anymore. But, there’re no worries anyone will start to ask questions here. It’s already March. That diploma is as good as mine. Then I can enroll in online college and try to salvage something of my pathetic life.


Author Bio:
I am a former elementary school teacher and currently run an elementary library which is the perfect job for my interests.

In October 2010 I had an essay published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Devotional Stories For Mothers. Another essay will be published in November 2013 in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Just Us Girls.

In 2012 my debut picture book was released by Bronze Man Books. Am I Like My Daddy? follows the journey of a child who seeks to learn if she is anything like the dad who died when she was young.

My middle grade novel, Confessions of a Corn Kid, as well a YA short story trilogy, The Lexie and Rhett Chronicles, and To Know Me, were released direct to kindle in 2013.

I am a great eavesdropper and person profiler which proves a fabulous advantage for a writer. As my favorite shirt says, Be careful or you’ll end up in my novel.

Author Links

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GIVEAWAY:
2 e-book copies of To Know Me (mobi) (US)

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Review: Fitz by Mick Cochrane

Fitz
by Mick Cochrane
Published: November 13, 2013
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Available: Amazon

Synopsis:
A father, a son, and a gun. This could make for an interesting day..

Sometimes Fitz would look at himself in the mirror, an expression of pathetic eagerness on his face. He was a dog in the pound, wanting to be adopted. He'd smile. What father wouldn't want this boy?

Fifteen-year-old Fitzgerald—Fitz, to his friends—has just learned that his father, whom he's never met, who supports him but is not a part of his life, is living nearby. Fitz begins to follow him, watch him, study him, and on an otherwise ordinary May morning, he executes a plan to force his father, at gunpoint, to be with him.

Over the course of one spring day, Fitz and his father become real to one another. Fitz learns about his father, why he's chosen to remain distant and what really happened between him and Fitz's mother. And his father learns what sort of boy his son has grown up to become.

Review:
Fitz starts off by jumping right into the action with Fitz taking his father hostage. I thought this was a great way to grab the reader and throw them into Fitz's life. Then it slowed right down to the point where I wanted to skip pages. Not the best thing with a book that is fairly short.

I suppose I was just expecting more drama, more action, more excitement. Fitz, though, is a literary tale that focuses on Fitz's journey to understanding who he is, as defined by his absent father. Fitz is obviously a very troubled boy, and Cochrane gives us bits and pieces that show Fitz has a lot of stuff going on in his head. I just never felt connected to him. It felt more like I was simply being told everything and I wanted to actually experience Fitz's anger and sorrow.

This is definitely a book that would appeal to more literary work lovers, though I think readers who have gone through similar upbringings as Fitz may be able to connect easier with his character.

Book Blitz: American Girl on Saturn by Nikki Godwin

American Girl On Saturn

by Nikki Godwin

Release Date: 08/24/13

Summary:

The summer after graduation is supposed to be that first real taste of freedom - but not for eighteen-year-old Chloe Branson. Just as that breeze of freedom is making its way into her galaxy, her secret-service-agent dad drops a meteor-sized bomb of bad news on her and her sisters. An attempt has been made on the lives of
Canadian boyband, Spaceships Around Saturn, during their USA tour, and the guys have to go into hiding ASAP. The only problem? In the midst of the crisis and
media frenzy, their dad volunteered to hide the guys...in their house.

Six-year-old Emery is as ecstatic as any self-proclaimed Saturnite would be, but Chloe and her seventeen-year-old sister Aralie watch their summer plans
crash and burn like a falling star. The SAS guys aren't happy with the situation, either. Bad boy Jules picks fights with Aralie about everything from his
Twitter followers to his laundry, and heart-throb Benji can't escape Emery's fangirlisms for more than three minutes.

But after the super-cute Milo kisses Chloe during a game of hide-and-seek, she finally understands what Emery means when she talks about SAS being "out of this world." If this is what Saturn feels like, Chloe doesn't want to come back to Earth.

Excerpt

He reaches toward the tray and grabs the lone Oreo. “Okay, this is my last one for the night,” he says. “Half it with me?”

Seriously? If I wasn’t the envy of every Saturnite in the world just by sitting across the table from him, I’m definitely the envy of them now because the Milo Grayson wants to half his precious Oreo with me. And the thing that sucks the most is that no one knows about it to be jealous of me!

He holds the cookie up and waits for a response.

“Yeah, we can half it,” I say.

I reach across the table for it, but he jerks his arm back. The sleeve of his T-shirt hugs his bicep tightly, and oh how I wish to be that fabric.

“Not so fast,” he says. “Let’s make it interesting.”

Could this be any more interesting? Hello – you’re gorgeous and famous and sharing cookies with me! Any more ‘interest’ and I might burst like a firework.

“If you get the side with the cream, I’ll give you my honest male opinion about your checkout line drama today,” he says. “But if I get the cream side, you have to tell me, honestly, who you think the best looking guy is in Spaceships Around Saturn.”

Oh God. He’s for real. Does he know? He totally knows. He knows I’m lusting for him from behind this glass of milk and tattoo magazine. He knows that his eyes make me melt and that I clearly watch him on Twitter because I know all about amazzzzzing. Now he wants to make me ‘fess up.

“Deal.” I say it before I can chicken out.

I can always lie and say Benji’s name. He’s the fan favorite anyway. Benji Baccarini is Spaceships Around Saturn for so many girls.

He leans forward, positions himself over the table, and holds up that fated Oreo. I push my glass of milk aside because the last thing I want is to knock it over with my quivering nerves. Then I lean toward him, grip the cookie with my fingers, and inhale every scent of his body wash that I can while I twist my half of the Oreo away from his half.


About the Author

Nikki Godwin is a Young Adult author from the southern USA. She is a city girl who can't live without Mountain Dew, black eyeliner, Hawthorne Heights, and candles from Bath & Body Works. When not writing, she's not-so-secretly internet-stalking her favorite bands. She is slightly obsessed with rock stars and surfers. She no longer hides her love for One Direction.

***Author Links***

   

***GIVEAWAY***

1 signed paperback +
swag (US only)

3 e-book copies (INTL)

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Review: In Too Deep by Coert Voorhees

In Too Deep
by Coert Voorhees
Published: July 9, 2013
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Available: Amazon

Synopsis
Annie Fleet, master scuba diver and history buff, knows she can’t fight her nerd status as a freshman at her Los Angeles private school. And she doesn’t care—except for the fact that her crush, Josh, thinks she’s more adorable than desirable. Annie is determined to set him straight on their school trip to Mexico. But her teacher has other plans: he needs Annie to help him find Cortez’s lost-long treasure.

Suddenly, Annie finds herself scuba diving in pitch-black waters, jetting to Hawaii with Josh, and hunting for the priceless Golden Jaguar. But Annie and Josh aren’t the only ones lured by the possibility of finding the greatest treasure ever lost at sea. Someone else wants the gold—and needs Annie dead. In deeper danger than she ever imagined, can Annie get the boy and find the Jaguar, or is she in over her head?

Critically-acclaimed author Coert Voorhees delivers breathtaking romance and non-stop action in his newest novel, the spirited and captivating In Too Deep.

Review:
I absolutely loved the idea of this story. An adventure story with a girl who is not only the more knowledgeable, but also the one who saves the day grabbed my attention. The cover was great and I had some pretty high expectations. Voorhees did not disappoint. In Too Deep is a well developed, fast paced adventure with some great romance thrown in the mix.

Annie is a great protagonist. She is shy, geeky, and completely head over heels for a guy she doesn't think would ever be interested in her. And she stays this way. All the way to the end. There is no sudden change in her interest in treasure hunting. There is no end to her love of scuba diving. There is no disappearance of her shyness or geekiness. Not that she doesn't grow as a character, because she does. But there is no sudden 180 just because she develops some confidence. 

Josh isn't the typical hot male protag that so many YA books are focusing on. Yes he's hot and funny, but he's also a real guy, and he reacts just like a real guy would. There's no cheesy, over the top romantic gestures or words coming from him. But it didn't matter. In the end I could forgive his name dropping, inflated ego, and his lack of amazing ability at everything he does, because I believed in him as a person.

So, why the 4 star rating if I loved the story and the characters? Well, it had to do with the believability of Annie being 15 years old. I didn't buy that aspect. Not only were we expected to believe that she was a master scuba diver, but also that she had been giving lessons at her mom's scuba shop for a long time, that she was left to train people in dangerous situations, and that her parents went along with ideas of her going for extended trips not only as part of a school group, but also on one with a guy and his famous mom? I had to ignore all of the references to her age and pretend she was 17 or 18 in order to buy into these aspects.

I noticed that Voorhees has another few YA books out and I'll definitely be checking those out.

 

 

Sliding Beneath the Surface by Doug Dillon

Sliding Beneath the Surface (The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book 1)
Author: Doug Dillon
Release Date: August 24, 2011
Genre: YA Paranormal

Hello St. Augustine Fans! Let’s not forget the YA Paranormal Fans!

For five days, the Kindle version will be available FOR FREE on Amazon—a special promotion, September 4th - 8th. Help spread the word and tell everyone you know! Click here to get your copy today—Sliding Beneath the Surface.

The Spirit of St. Augustine

Have you ever been to St. Augustine, Florida, America’s oldest city? To me, it’s a magical place, just bubbling with the spirits of bygone days. This is especially true at Christmas when the historical district is ablaze with tiny white lights. The Nights of Lights, they call the time from December through January.

It isn’t just the beautiful old buildings, some from the time of the Spanish, that has captured my soul. No, it’s also the ghostly presences arising out of that past that seem to tap you on shoulder, a few even of Native American origins from thousands of years ago.

Oh, yes! Ghost stories abound in this ancient location, as do the ghost tours. By day and by night, guides will walk with you, transport you by tram or hearse, and even take you aboard a sailing ship while telling their tales.

As a former history teacher and writer well experienced in the paranormal, you can see how St. Augustine might hold some appeal for me. But it’s much more than that if you want to know the truth. Seems at times as if that old city is using me to channel its innermost essence. Can I explain what I mean by that exactly? No, not really. Words are often a poor substitute for a felt sense.

What I can tell you is this. I’ve spent weeks on end in St. Augustine, haunting its ancient streets and buildings, doing endless research in the city’s historical society and talking with people—even homeless folks. And the more I do this, the more I know I made the right choice in selecting St. Augustine as the central location for my young adult, paranormal/historical series that I’ve titled, The St. Augustine Trilogy.

In the process, what I also know is that there are no coincidences. My connection to this old city and writing about it in the trilogy was definitely meant to be. What was also meant to be is the linkage now being established between St. Augustine and readers of my series. This includes the wonderful relationship I have established with Julia Hendrix, my friend and assistant who hails from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I live just north of Orlando.

You see, as I continue to study the paranormal in general, I increasingly perceive reality as endless layers within layers. And when I’m in St. Augustine, it’s as if the city hold a lens up to me so I can look deeper into the nature of existence and the connectivity my work holds for readers. That’s why on the cover of Book I of the trilogy, Sliding Beneath the Surface, I show a picture of an exquisite Chinese puzzle ball with all those multiple layers carved beneath its surface.

What an incredible journey I’m having. Thank you so much for being part of it.

— Doug Dillon

SYNOPSIS

In old St. Augustine, Florida, fifteen-year-old Jeff Golden’s recurring dream of being stabbed in the chest and bleeding all over his bed is driving him crazy. It’s causing him to lose sleep and giving him severe headaches. When his psychically gifted friend Carla and an ornery Native American shaman named Lobo try to help, Jeff is inundated with terrifying paranormal experiences.

Reaching out of Florida’s distant past, something increasingly entangles Jeff in tentacles of danger that threaten his sanity and eventually his life. But the harder he tries to understand, the deeper he gets. When comprehension finally dawns though, time has almost run out. Lobo does his best to prepare Jeff for what he must face in order to survive but it may be too little and too late.

It’s at this point that both Jeff and Carla find themselves swept headlong into an alternative reality from which they may never return. If they don’t quickly and fully adapt to this situation, all hope is lost. From Lobo they know how it might be possible to change what is happening but the question is, can they? Repeatedly, Lobo has told both teens, “You create your own reality whether in this world or in another.” If acted upon properly, that advice just might save their lives and end suffering on an even wider scale.


AUTHOR BIO
A former award winning educator, Doug writes about things paranormal and historical. His interest in the paranormal comes from personal experiences as detailed in the nonfiction adult book he and wife wrote titled, An Explosion of Being: An American Family's Journey into the Psychic. Out of those events and extensive historical research, he then created Sliding Beneath the Surface for young adults, Book I of the St. Augustine Trilogy. Doug set his trilogy in the oldest and most haunted city in the United States, St. Augustine, Florida. Books II and III of the trilogy are on the way.

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Guest Post by S.E. Stenner, Author of Paraestrals

 Paraestrals (Volume 1)

by S.E. Stenner

Published: August 26, 2012

Available: Amazon

Synopsis:

Who ever said a P.I. has to be human!

A narrative coming of age thriller/horror, about a young girl whose world is turned upside down as the origins of her dark lineage surface.

'My name is Samantha LeFay, I'm young, popular, with my whole life ahead of me, what can go wrong - everything! After turning sixteen and suddenly becoming allergic to the sun along with a few other weird afflictions, my life begins to unravel at the seams, as my friends desert me, my boss at my weekend job forces me to quit and my stepmother nags me to the point of insanity. My life's different now, I'm different. As the people at school would put it I'm a freak - Sammy LeFreak. I don't know if they're right, all I know is the sun burns my skin, I suddenly have the strength to throw a guy ten foot in the air and my body craves a particular substance...Blood!'

Paraestrals is no ordinary Vampire tale, my story takes the reader along with Sam as she discovers this hidden side she never knew she had, and follows the decisions she makes when it comes to how she'll use these new found powers she possesses.

Guest Post by S.E. Stenner

I’ve been writing children’s and teenage fiction for over ten years and what drew me to the subject of Vampires was the flexibility of these folklore monsters. There have been so many portrayals of vampires through-out literature, film and history and it seems that they will forever continue to evolve. Which gave me my opener to take the vampire and mold it to fit the story I wanted to tell. A young teenage girl who not only has puberty, school and a disruptive home life to contend with, but the realization of what else she may be to add to the mix. Samantha’s character is one that will grow and change with every book and as a reader I hope some of you will relate with the everyday problems she comes up against, while marveling at her supernatural ones too.

I became a writer because I just love stories, though being dyslexic was a challenge when it came to putting my own thoughts onto the page, but ultimately I write because tales pop into my head and I hate to think of them drifting away and being forgotten, so I write them down.

I hope you will enjoy this little vampire tale, which came to me a few years ago and don’t forget for all the up coming info on the Paraestrals series check out the official website, Facebook page and Twitter link…..

All the best, S.E.Stenner.

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